?wmode=transparent"This year alone, more than 6 million people have been impacted by data breaches," Catherine Meek, director of product management at BitTorrent, said in a blog post. "The right to own your own conversations online: it's not a given. It should be."

Details about BitTorrent Chat remain scarce in the early stages, but spokesman Christian Averill confirmed to PCMag that the system will be available for desktop and mobile, though there is no word on when it will launch or on which devices.

BitTorrent made a splash recently with its Sync service, which lets users coordinate files across multiple devices. But the new Chat product is not an offshoot of Sync; rather, it is a standalone product that will work like Sync, according Averill.

"As with BitTorrent Sync and our other products, our aim is to create a durable product without the need for centralized servers," Averill said. "That is in line with one of our core values: people have the right to privacy."

That right is emphasized by BitTorrent's decision not to store chats on servers, as other services do, therefore keeping conversations safe from data breaches and prying eyes. Additionally, the no-limits, no-fees service allows only those using BitTorrent's encrypted peer-to-peer network to send and receive messages.

More specifics about the program are expected as the chat client continues its early testing. Sign up online for notifications and to participate in the pre-Alpha phase.

For more, check out today's PCMag Live video below to get Dan Costa and Sascha Segan's take on BitTorrent Chat. Also check out The NSA and the End of Privacy.

BitTorrent isn't the only firm trying to avoid the NSA. Over the weekend, eccentric tech entrepreneur John McAfee revealed the "D-Central" router, aimed at blocking unwanted government surveillance. The sub-$100 device is expected to be ready to communicate with smartphones, tablets, and other gadgets within six months.

Stephanie began as a PCMag reporter in May 2012. She moved to New York City from Frederick, Md., where she worked for four years as a multimedia reporter at the second-largest daily newspaper in Maryland. She interned at Baltimore magazine and graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (in the town of Indiana, in the state of Pennsylvania) with a degree in journalism and mass communications.
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